


fury.

by waterpllar



Series: winter soldier/homunculus au [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Brainwashing, Gen, Homunculus Edward Elric, Hurt/Comfort, Winter Soldier AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23840701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterpllar/pseuds/waterpllar
Summary: Winter Soldier au in which Ed is Wrath, Al is the Fullmetal Alchemist, and a routine mission for them turns into a chance encounter, upending both of their lives.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric
Series: winter soldier/homunculus au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1717897
Comments: 5
Kudos: 78





	fury.

Splitting headaches are becoming the norm for Wrath these days. 

He’s not really sure what’s causing them, but it’s getting bad enough to be interfering in missions. It’s really fucking annoying, especially since none of the other homunculi seem to be suffering from them. He’s sick of Envy mocking him as he clutches his head in the shitty hotels they rent to keep up appearances. 

Wrath’s kind of wishing that he’d been paired up with Greed for this mission, which is a new low, even for him. At least Greed has a sense of humour and something of a conscience. They’re not exactly the best pair, even at the best of times, so he understands why they’re separated, but it doesn’t change the fact that Envy is an asshole. 

Lust isn’t even an option. 

She’s all offense, piercing through humans before they even move, and Wrath, with his enhanced automail arm and alchemy doesn’t fall in the strict categories that Father likes so much. 

Greed’s carbon shield goes much better with Lust, but it’s frustrating. 

Envy can disguise themself, but their best fighting form is the giant-ass dragon, which isn’t exactly subtle or secretive, especially considering the fact that Envy’s whole job involves those two things. 

It makes sense on paper, combining disguises with Wrath’s eye, but that doesn’t make it work in real life. 

Father’s warned them both what will happen if they fail to cooperate with each other. That’s probably the only thing keeping Envy in line. 

Biting comments are apparently still allowed, though. 

“C’mon, pipsqueak,” Envy chuckles from their lofty perch. “Why don’t we get a move on?” 

Wrath twitches. “Shut up.” 

“Nah. I shouldn’t be waiting for your stupid ass to recover, anyway.” Envy’s always so smug when they rub in the fact that Wrath can’t heal as fast as the rest. 

It has something to do with being based on a human, instead of a pure philosopher’s stone, but he’s never bothered to get into the specifics. Wrath’s left hand feels like it’s been crushed to shit, and weak red light is dancing over it, but they can’t afford to spend any more time in the old bell tower. 

He’ll just push through the pain long enough to get the job done, anyway. 

“Shut the fuck up. Let’s go.” he snarls. 

“Whatever you say, pipsqueak.” 

x

Al sighs. 

The plane is roaring too loud to make conversation, but he’s feeling nervous. 

According to Winry, this is the spot where the homunculi are going to strike next. She’d finally figured out a pattern in their seemingly random attacks, and sent Al and Paninya to spy. 

Thanks to the lack of competent soldiers in such a remote post, today is just a rescue mission to get as many civilians out of the way, but he’s still wary about how little backup they’re getting. 

Not that it would do much good, anyway. 

The only ones who can stand a chance against even one of the homunculi are all scattered across the country. He and Paninya are definitely not enough to stand against a team, but one is definitely doable, if they team up. 

Maybe they’ll get lucky and only have to deal with Greed, but it’s highly unlikely that they’ll send him alone, after the incident in which Al discovered the way to rearrange his shield their last encounter. 

He leans back in the uncomfortable seat. 

At least he knows Winry is on standby to send one of her special machines if they get in too much trouble. Hopefully that will buy enough time for them to run away. 

Al’s musings are interrupted by the red blinking light over his wristband. 

It’s time to drop down. 

Next to him, Paninya jumps to her feet, stretching. 

“You ready?” she’s smiling a little, like this is anything less than a life-threatening mission. 

He nods. “I’ll go first.” 

“Be my guest.” 

x

Their mission is simple. 

Envy goes in disguised as the Brigadier General, and Wrath finds and kills him quietly as possible. If that goes perfectly, then Envy will order the soldiers to attack the nearby town, while he goes off setting the bombs under the military headquarters. 

So far, nothing has gone wrong, a miracle in itself. 

The soldiers are all obeying their orders with little to no questioning. (of course, the ones that are have already been swiftly killed by Wrath) 

Wrath is going around wearing a military coat to blend in, spying on any disruptors, when he overhears something. 

“-Sir, what do we do? Central just sent us a message that the Cannon and Fullmetal Alchemist are here.” 

He freezes. 

A state alchemist and one of the most competent escape artists in the military is not a good sign. It’s unlikely that they’ll suspect Envy for anything, but if they find out that the soldiers are going to fire on a defenseless town, their massacre will fail. 

Still, maybe Wrath can find something good out of it. 

As far as he knows, Father detests the Cannon for being such a nuisance to their plans, even without using alchemy. Fullmetal is still one of the most important sacrifices, so Wrath can’t kill him, but the Cannon is free game. Maybe Father will even take pity on him and reassign Envy to Gluttony. 

He grins under his cap, and starts heading to the roof, blood already pumping. 

x

They’re preparing for a battle. 

Al can already tell that much, just from the hustle going around from everywhere. 

A moment later, Paninya drops next to him, eyes narrow and cannons already whirring. 

Soldiers immediately come to them, but Paninya scares them off with a glare. 

“This isn’t right,” Al mutters. “There’s no conflict here that requires this many people to be prepping.” 

Paninya nods. “I’ll go check in with the General.” 

She starts jogging across the platform to one of the exit, when someone stops her. 

From where Al’s standing, he can’t see exactly who is in the way, but he doesn’t miss the way Paninya stiffens, then shifts into a fighting stance. 

He shoves his way past the crowd of soldiers, when he spots the masked figure. 

It’s a homunculus. 

They’re wearing the same black getup that the others have, but there are none of the red spots Al’s seen on all the rest, but there’s no mistaking it from this close up. There’s an ouroboros mark on their eye. 

Al reaches Paninya’s side. 

The homunculus tilts their head up to look Al in the eye. 

“Get out of the way, Fullmetal Alchemist,” they say. “We have no interest in hurting you, yet.” 

He holds his spear up. “I don’t have an interest in you hurting anyone here.” 

The homunculus snorts. “Too fucking bad, then. I have orders to kill the Cannon here on sight.” 

“Who are you?” So far, all the homunculus have at least deigned to introduce themselves before attacking, but this one is cleary different. 

“Wrath,” the homunculus sneers. “I don’t suppose you’ll let me just slice your friend’s throat open?” 

Paninya bares her teeth at Wrath, and Al tightens his grip. 

Wrath shakes his head in an almost comical fashion, sighing like a disappointed teacher. Then, faster than either of them can react, he claps his hands together, transmuting his own arm into a razor sharp blade. 

Al jerks his head up in shock, but there’s no time to stop and ask more questions, when Wrath darts forward and slashes at Paninya. 

She barely jumps out of the way in time, and by the looks of it, her shirt is ruined. 

This homunculus is fast, faster than any others they’ve encountered. 

He can use alchemy without a transmutation circle, something only Al and Izumi can do, and he’s good at it. 

Paninya is dodging all of Wrath’s attempts to slice her guts open, but Al can already tell that she won’t be able to keep this up for long, and by the looks of it, Wrath can. 

Al tightens his grip on his spear, and jumps at Wrath with a yell. 

He dodges easily, but he’s not trying to kill Paninya anymore, focused completely on Al. 

“Man, it is such a pain that the sacrifices are always the ones causing so much trouble,” Wrath remarks, while ducking another swipe. 

Al doesn’t reply, just keeps attacking, but Wrath isn’t even trying. His jabs are half-hearted, and he’s barely making an effort to block. 

_Damn it._

There’s no way Al can win this fight. 

He grits his teeth, and then idea comes to him. He feints left, and when Wrath jumps forward to take another swipe at Al, he claps quickly, and the spear in his hands molds itself around Wrath’s automail arm. 

It only buys Al a moment of surprise, but it’s enough. He swings his leg up and kicks Wrath in the jaw, knocking the mask off, and making him stumble back a few steps. 

Al resists the urge to pump his fist in victory, but Wrath only laughs. 

“I guess you do have a bit of fight in you,” he says while straightening up again. “I actually felt that.” 

Al’s getting ready to transmute another weapon from the side of a plane, when Wrath shakes the hood off his head, and looks up again. 

_”Ed?”_

Wrath tenses up, and Al is frozen in place with shock, when he suddenly collapses to the ground, on his knees with his head in his hands. 

Paninya is sprinting up with a group of armed soldiers, when she catches sight of Wrath at Al’s feet. 

“What the hell happened?” she demands. 

It takes several tries for Al to get his mouth to cooperate. “Paninya, it’s Ed, I-” he cuts himself off when Wrath groans. 

He crouches down, hands outstretched. “What- what’s wrong?” 

“My fucking head,” Wrath chokes out. “I can’t fucking- I can’t _think_.” 

Al is panicking. “It’s- it’s okay, I, um, Ed, do you remember me?” 

That gets him to look up again, and for a moment, Al’s breath is stolen away with how much he looks like the Ed that disappeared five years ago. 

Ed’s eyes are wide, and the golden one focuses on Al for a second. “Alphonse?” his voice is wavering and uncertain, but Al feels hope start to sprout in his chest. 

“Yes, I- yes, I’m Alphonse, I’m your brother, Ed.” 

“Ed?” his voice is faint. “Is that who I was?” 

Ed’s eyes roll up into his head, and Al has to scramble to catch him before his head falls onto rubble. His hands are shaking when Paninya walks forward cautiously. 

“Al, is that really Ed?” Paninya asks. 

“Yes, it is,” Al says with certainty. “I know it’s him.” 

He starts to stand with Ed in his arms, when Paninya pushes his shoulder back down. 

“We need to cuff him first.” 

“Why? It’s Ed, he’s my-”

“Brother or not, he’s still a homunculus, and he tried to kill me. I’m sorry, Al.” 

Reluctantly, Al lets Paninya tighten the specially designed cuffs on Ed’s wrists and ankles. 

Paninya stands once she’s done. “Let’s head back to base. We need a safe place to question him, and there’s no one better at containing homunculi than Winry.” 

Mutely, Al nods, and picks up Ed again. 

Once they’ve boarded their return plane, Al finally relaxes. 

He knows Paninya is looking at him worriedly, but the only thing he can think about is Ed. 

Ed, who disappeared just days after Colonel Mustang made his offer. 

His brother, who he might just have gotten back after five years of searching. 

Al’s mission from the start has always been to somehow find out what happened to Ed, but now he’s gotten something much better. He’s sacrificed so much to get to this point, and he’s going to get Ed back to normal no matter what.


End file.
